Paul Basil of the Chennai based Rural Innovations Network (RIN) on the story of an irrigation invention that promises many benefits to farmers.

Not only does the executive refuse to appoint more judges, but government also drags its feet in giving them allowances for books, library and residence. Colin Gonsalves says the justice system is choked by the executive and legislative branches.

The construction of barrages to meet the water needs of thermal power plants in western Chattisgarh shows that irregularities involved in the allocation of this resource may be as large as the ones in coal allocation itself. Shripad Dharmadhikary throws light on the issue.

An assessment of factors from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore.

Third in the series of articles adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, the author looks at the Corruption factor.

Fourth in a series of articles adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, the author looks at the weaknesses in civil society as a factor for our ailing public services.

Is incompetence and lack of motivated the cause for the malaise? Second in the series of articles adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore.

Concluding article of the series on "What ails our public services?" adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore.

Fifth in a series of articles adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, the author looks at the low priority given to productivity as a factor for our ailing public services.

Information technology can and must expand from merely being an agent of the trickle-down effect to active resource mobilization, says Krishna Rupanagunta.

Tamilnadu's foray into e-governance has not yet lived upto potential because policy makers may be implementing top-driven projects with little public participation. Still, the state does have its own examples of how things could work. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

Environmental clearances in India have always raised questions, as noted in many reports in India Together. For years now, NGOs have opposed the Ministry of Environment, sometimes bitterly. Last year, the Ministry proposed a 're-engineered' regulation, and found a new opposition - the state governments. Kanchi Kohli has more.

Modi has raised a serious issue. But he has also let loose the argument that a well-off state does not now need the Centre or other states. This is the shape of conflicts that will haunt the Indian Republic in the years to come, writes Pratap B Mehta.

Municipal corporations in India have neither any grip on the number of staffers employed and their skillsets nor any mechanism to ascertain these. Madhavi Rajadhyaksha discusses several studies including the ASICS from Janaagraha to expose what ails urban local bodies.

It has been more than 3 decades since the scheme of Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan was implemented. It was given statutory status by converting it into an Act in Karnataka in 2013.  Kathyayini Chamaraj examines the promises of the scheme and Act and questions the outcomes.

An Uttar Pradesh district's local functionaries feel the grassroots media's reporting of development needs deepening. A two-part series by The Hoot.org.

WSJ Heard on the Street's Miriam Gottfried visits Mean Street to shed light on how Viacom and CBS, since splitting into two companies in 2006, have experienced a role reversal in terms of growth. Photo: Getty Images.

Two new smart systems use cameras, artificial intelligence and an assortment of sensors to keep watch over you—Patscan looks for threats in public spaces, while Eyeris monitors the driver and passengers in a car. WSJ’s Katherine Bindley visits CES to explores their advantages, as well as their privacy costs.

The White House announced new guidelines Monday to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, and asked the public to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. Photo: Erik S. Lesser/Shutterstock

A business is only as strong as its foundation. Retired Gen. Michael Diamond joins Lunch Break's Tanya Rivero to share a process he developed through years of high-level military service that can strengthen any organization. Photo: iStock

This year's CES tech show in Las Vegas might not have had an overarching theme, but it certainly was high on invention. WSJ's Katherine Bindley tries out the most interesting contraptions on display, from Segway's new personal transporter and Samsung's rotating TV to a pair of huge robotic arms and, yes, motion-tracking pajamas. Photo/Video: Emily Prapuolenis

The Congress performance in Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha poll may have been impressive, but party leaders are worried about the results of the assembly election, which turned out to be below their expectations. Though the Y S Rajasekhar Reddy-led Congress swept back to power, winning 157 seats in the 294-seat assembly, the party failed to secure an absolute majority.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Karnataka Power Minister K S Eshwarappa has alleged that liquor had been used to woo voters to vote for Chief Minister B S Yedyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra, who won the recently-held Lok Sabha polls from Shimoga.Eshwarappa's comments come in the wake of Yeddyurappa's allegations about the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader not doing enough to ensure that his won wins by a larger margin.

The coronavirus pandemic is disrupting the global economy. WSJ’s Greg Ip explains what the Federal Reserve can do to stem the damage. Illustration: Carlos Waters/WSJ

The current national elections have set high standards in management, organization, transparency and fair selection of people's representatives. Now, the chosen representatives must understand that people have voted for governance, writes Arvind Verma.

Continuing the focus on how Members of Parliament from key urban constituencies have fared in the 15th Lok Sabha, Lavanya Donthamshetty shines the spotlight on the leaders from Chennai.

Days before the much-hyped showdown between Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi, Prabhu Mallikarjunan pays a visit to the holy city to know more about the loyalties and concerns of people on the ground.

Kerala's electricity board is preparing to build the seventh dam across the 144-kilometers-long Chalakudy river. The fate of the picturesque Athirappilly waterfalls hangs in the balance, with locals battling against the project. Sudhirendar Sharma has more.

High rhetoric and token gestures abound on International Women’s Day. Yet, a brave woman of the soil was threatened, attacked and prevented from holding a rally that would have voiced the real issues faced by many women. Freny Manecksha met Soni Sori days before she was attacked, and recounts her story.

The nation is still the best mediator of the sphere of thought and the sphere of action. Even in a changing world, we cannot wish away the Indian nation and replace it with a world government overnight, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.

The recent simplifications to the Central environmental clearance process may endup pushing peoples’ participation and transparency to fringes, says Sunita Dubey.

It is clear that people across the country are driven by strong environment values. Therefore, without having a policy process that channelises their perceptions and crystallises them in policy statements, it is not possible to sequence and prioritise our environmental problems, says Videh Upadhyay.

The current situation of impotence that the Government finds itself in should prompt some soul searching about the reliance on market mechanisms to take care of India's food security, writes Kannan Kasturi.

Why is it that large expenditure on food subsidy in India does not achieve more in reducing undernourishment? At a New Delhi public hearing earlier this year, Dr. Amartya Sen addressed this question.

Who is buying the new homes that are mushrooming in every city? What income group does this class belong to, and how does their affluent consumption compare to the national average, or to home-buyers elsewhere in the world. Darryl D'Monte finds some of the answers at a session with a human geographer.

The recent clash between two eminent economists of our times, Amartya Sen and Jagadish Bhagwati, appears to be centred around the Food Security Bill. Shankar Jaganathan provides a historical context to show why their contradictions extend far beyond any isolated issue to a clash between two schools of the discipline itself.

"It is time for my daughter to get married but where's the money? We ran a teashop for a long time. That folded as people had no more to spend." P Sainath finds that as the agrarian crisis has deepened in Wayanad, many people are now simply unable to afford weddings.

The mob came from three different directions. Each group was preoccupied with its own murder. Bhayyalal's wife and daughter had their skulls smashed in, and his boys were beaten to death with sticks. Dilip D'Souza listens to the 'background' of yet another caste murder.

Years since the adoption of the environment impact assessment law, systemic weaknesses and a token approach to public hearings are defeating its purpose. Kanchi Kohli does a review.

Fixated on eliminating the grounds for disqualification of legislators that arose from their holding of offices-of-profit in the Executive, Parliament has sent back the infamous Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill to the President, who is now constitution-bound to sign it. Madabhushi Sridhar points out why the legislation must be stopped.

Compared to the death penalty, life imprisonment is considered less harsh. The courts have preferred to leave undefined exactly how long such punishment should be, and commutation pleas are considered on a case-by-case basis. Ipshita Sengupta reports.

The recently promulgated ordinance amending the national law related to land acquisition dilutes several clauses of the earlier legislation that were meant to protect the rights of holders. Kanchi Kohli summarises the key changes brought in by the ordinance.

Shalini Bhutani takes a close look at the law and ensuing policy on trade in India, and asks whether the regulatory framework on trade issues nurtures the idea of public consultation.

As the Lok Satta party, with its crop of image-defying politicians, raises hopes for a new brand of politics, Subramaniam Vincent catches up with party leader Dr Jayaprakash Narayan on the party's hopes at the Karnataka polls and possibilities of a larger wave of political reforms in the country.

In the poorest part of Jharkhand, community radio has become an important instrument for the development of neglected communities. If access to their own media were freer, the villagers believe, things could be even better. Pratibha Jyoti reports on the progress made even without government support for community stations.

The absence of open conflict between India and Pakistan since both became nuclear states is cited as proof that deterrence works. But there have been unacknowledged conflicts, and just as importantly, a closer look at each instance shows other factors are also at work, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

A senior advocate at the Srinagar High Court, Parvez Imroz helped bring together hundreds of Kashmiri families whose members have disappeared in the conflict. The media have not been forthright when reporting about Kashmir, he tells Joe Athialy in this interview, but acknowledges that the support of other people's movements is vital.

From Urban Poverty Alleviation Initiatives in India : A General Assessment and a Particular Perspective (2002), a publication of the Ramanathan Foundation.
Interact: What about bank red-tape and corruption?

Shipra Saxena on Midnapore's strides in implementing a government and UNICEF sponsored rural sanitation scheme, in West Bengal.

The poor never follow the rules of good health, we often hear. But the rules, in fact, are no guarantee of safe health in a system that is poorly regulated and unaccountable to its users.